Only ONE of the 624 care homes in the West Midlands received an outstanding rating overall at their last official inspection.

Shocking figures from the Care Quality Commission - the official care watchdog - show that in some parts of the region four in 10 care homes were given an overall rating of “requires improvement” or “inadequate”.

In Walsall, there were no outstanding homes and 31 good ones.

But, worryingly, there were 20 which required improvement - and one was even branded inadequate.

That means an astonishing 40.4 per cent of homes fell into one of the bottom two categories.

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On average, across England, 26.6 per cent of care homes are judged by the CQC to either require improvement or be inadequate.

In four places - all in Greater Manchester - more than half of all care homes fall into one of those categories.

They are Stockport (63.8 per cent), Salford (60.5 per cent), Tameside (58.6 per cent) and Manchester (52.9 per cent).

(Image: Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Across the country as a whole, the places with the lowest percentage of care homes rated either inadequate or requiring improvement overall were Richmond upon Thames in London (2.3 per cent), Thurrock (2.9 per cent), Wokingham (6.1 per cent), Islington (6.3 per cent) and Blackburn with Darwen (6.3 per cent).

Warwickshire had the highest number of outstanding homes, with nine.

The figures were published by the CQC at the start of December are reflect the latest situation reported to the CQC at that time.